


Who I Am (might be a surprise to you)

by Immortal_Dreams



Series: The Other 51 [9]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Case Fic, Garcia is a fangirl, Gen, Secret Identity, Singer!Spencer Reid, Spencer can sing, and nobody knows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 14:28:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28814907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Immortal_Dreams/pseuds/Immortal_Dreams
Summary: Spencer Reid: Genius, agent and profiler.Penny Taylor: Singer, mysterious and the object of Garcia's newest obsession.The only problem? Spencer Reid and Penny Taylor are one and the same. And the team is about to find out as a case hits a little too close to home.
Series: The Other 51 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1925527
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	Who I Am (might be a surprise to you)

Spencer doesn’t really know what to think when he comes into work to find the bullpen in complete chaos. Well, maybe chaos is a little too dramatic. But most of the desks are a mess of unorganised paperwork and a few bags have been dropped in the middle of the hallway instead of at the owner’s workspace. Additionally, he can hear chatter and music playing from the direction of Garcia’s lair. As far as Spencer is aware, he shouldn’t be able to hear anything from as far away as Garcia’s lair, even with the doors open.

Naturally, he goes to check out what’s going on. He finds his whole team, other agents working in the bullpen, and a few people he’s not even sure work on the same floor huddled around Garcia. All of them are staring at her screen, which is playing…a youtube video? 

His entrance doesn’t go unnoticed and Garcia turns around with her usual smile. “Boy Genius!” she calls. “Have you seen this?”

“Uh…” Spencer takes a quick look at the screen. The video has a black background with a white rose and the singer’s name on it. “No, I haven’t”

It’s only half a lie. He has never seen that video, seeing as it only came out this morning. But he has heard the song more times than even he can count. After all, he’s the one who wrote it. His team doesn’t know that. They still believe he can’t sing to save his life and Spencer’s not about to tell them that he is maintaining a successful music career next to his job at the BAU that brings in enough money for him to have been able to retire three years ago.

Garcia looks shocked at his answer. “That is unacceptable!” She pulls him to the front of the crowd. “This is Penny Taylor’s new song. He’s the best singer you’ll ever get the pleasure to listen to.”

Alright. So, apparently all of his colleagues are massive fans of his music. No big deal. 

Spencer plays along and lets Garcia play him the song. When it’s done and she asks for his opinion, he tells her he enjoyed it. Luckily, a case comes in a few minutes later and the team goes back to normal. 

It’s a few weeks later when it’s brought up again. They are on a case in Las Vegas. Various employees of a recording studio have been kidnapped and killed in short succession. It is a big studio, used by many big names, so they first assume someone has a grudge against the studio. But then a local photographer goes missing, so the theory shifts to the main target being an artist who has recorded at the studio and been photographed by the latest victim. Unfortunately, that list is long. 

It’s only on the next day that Spencer makes the connection. When they get to the station, news of the body of the last victim being found and a new one being kidnapped await them. Spencer takes one look at the photo of the kidnapped manager and storms out of the room.

Once outside, he takes out his phone and dials his label’s number. It’s the number leading directly to the owner, so that’s who picks up.

“Hi, Jim,” Spencer grits out. “Could you tell me why I had to find out from the police that my manager has been kidnapped?”

“I’m supposed to tell you about a crime before I tell the police?”

“YES!”

Spencer can almost hear Jim wince. “Jesus, Penny, relax. I was gonna call you in a few minutes.”

“Well, I was faster,” Spencer says, running a hand through his hair. “Listen, I’m coming over and my team’s going to join us. Have you heard about the murders?”

“Yeah, of course,” Jim says. “Your team’s on the case, I’m guessing?”

“Yes. And I’ve just figured out victimology, which is wonderful, of course. You know how there’s alway a connection between victims? Yeah, that’s me. I’m the connection.”

“…shit.”

“Agreed. You just need to hold still and keep this to yourself until I get there, alright?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. I’ll see you soon.”

With that, Spencer hangs up and immediately dials another number as he walks towards one of the cars.

“Tech goddess here, how can I help you today?”

Spencer doesn’t waste much time. “The connection is Penny Taylor. Tell the team to meet me at the label’s office,” he says and hangs up.

He gets into the car and is out of the parking lot a few seconds later. By now, navigating the Las Vegas traffic is almost as easy as breathing for him, so he gets to the studio pretty fast. Once there, he doesn’t bother announcing his presence, instead just getting his keys out and opening the door. He races up the stairs, ignoring all the confused employees who have never seen him before. Or, well, they have, but not looking like this. Whenever he goes somewhere as Penny, he completely changes his look. He’ll put his hair in a bun, wear skinny jeans, combat boots and a leather jacket. And make up. Basically, he’s unrecognisable. And it’s not like that is a costume. Spencer genuinely likes dressing that way. But it would be unprofessional to do it for work, so he chose to keep the two styles of clothes he enjoys separated. One for work, one for music. And if he’s just at home by himself, he’ll do a mix of both.

At this point, he doesn’t care too much about keeping the two sides of his life apart anymore, considering his whole team is going to find out anyway in a few minutes. Now that he knows he is the connection between the victims, there is no way he can keep his secret. 

Jim waits for him in the doorway to his office and moves away so Spencer can step in as soon as he sees him. Spencer takes a quick look around the office, making sure they are not being watched. He knows he’s being paranoid, but he also thinks he’s got reason to be right now. After all, he seems to be their unsub’s target. And from past experience, it’s never a good thing when that happens. When he’s sure the room is safe, Spencer closes and locks the door and motions for Jim to sit behind his desk. Spencer himself sits down on the couch standing against a wall and giving him a good view of the whole room.

“What about your team?” Jim asks as he sits down, gesturing to the door.

Spencer shrugs. “They have phones, They can call me to unlock it for them. I’m not taking any chances.”

Jim considers it for a moment. “Fair enough.”

“Did you tell anyone that my team will be coming here?”

“No. Should I have?”

“Probably,” Spencer says. “If only to make sure they won’t be even more spooked then they already are from me storming in here.”

“But they know you,” Jim says, narrowing his eyes.

Spencer lets out a laugh. “Jim, darling, have you looked at me? Do I currently look anything like Penny Taylor? Those people don’t know me well enough to know what my civilian clothes look like. Hell, they don’t even know my real name.”

“Oh. Yeah, that makes sense.”

Jim looks a little red around the ears. Spencer grins. “Aw, come one. Don’t be embarrassed. Not all of us can be a genius.”

That makes Jim snort. “You know you’re lucky I know you’re joking. Imagine if someone thought you were serious, they’d think you were incredibly arrogant.”

Spencer doesn’t say that that is what his team would think if they were to hear him right now. He’s gained lots of confidence and sarcasm and snark over the years, but he plays it down at work. He keeps with the dorky persona instead of showing them all of who he is because it’s easier to let them keep their view of him than to tell them that’s not who he is anymore. Sometimes, he does feel bad about that one.

Instead of trying to say something that won’t make him feel like he’s being an asshole to his team, Spencer changes the topic. “Do you have any idea who could have done this?”

Jim shakes his head. “Nope,” he says. “I’ve been thinking about it ever since you called but I can’t think of anyone.”

“Maybe a fan who’s a little too obsessed with me?”

“You gotta be more specific than that,” Jim says, raising his brows. “That description fits thousands of teenagers.”

Spencer crosses his arms over his chest. “It wouldn’t be a teenager, though. This is too sophisticated for a teen. It would be an adult. I’m guessing I’m the main target and maybe they’re trying to get information about who I am.”

Jim nods. “That does make sense. But those first…victims…None of them had that kind of information.”

“Exactly,” Spencer says. “But with every abduction, the unsub got someone slightly more likely to know. And now they’ve taken my manager.”

Jim’s eyes get wide. “Daniel knows.”

“And Daniel knows,” Spencer agrees. “Which is why we need to find him before he gives in and tells the unsub. Because I’m pretty sure the only thing keeping him alive is that he has information the unsub wants. And once he gives that up, there’s no telling what will happen.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

Before they can get any further, Spencer’s phone starts ringing. He pulls it out of his pocket and looks at the caller ID. Accepting a random number seems like a bad idea right now. But it’s just Hotch, so Spencer accepts the call.

“Hi, Hotch. What’s up?”

He can almost hear Hotch’s patience being almost non-existent. “Reid, where are you? We’re at the studio and no one can tell us.”

“I’m upstairs, in the big office. I’ll open the door for you.”

With that, he hangs up and jumps off the couch. He walks to the door and unlocks it, standing in the doorway just like Jim did when he arrived. Only a few seconds later, his team comes up the stairs. The almost immediately notice him and walk towards him. Spencer can see they have questions, but he steps aside and gestures for them to get into the office. Best to have that conversation away from prying ears. Luckily, they understand and walk into the office. Once Spencer has once more closed and locked the door (even if that gets him a strange look from Morgan), they start asking those questions. But not before setting up a call to Garcia, of course. Spencer does feel a little bad about hanging up on her earlier.

Hotch is the first to speak. “Will you please tell us what’s going on? First you run out, then you call Garcia telling her this is about some singer, and then you order us here. I need an explanation.”

“And you deserve one,” Spencer says. “Well, it’s like this. I thought it was just a coincidence before, but the last victim? He’s Penny Taylor’s manager. That’s how I knew that was the connection. So I came here, to the label, to make sure he’s safe.”

He points to Jim, who gives a little wave and an awkward smile.

“We got that, boy wonder,” Garcia says. “What we don’t get is how you know all of that. A few weeks ago you told me you didn’t even know who Penny Taylor was.”

Spencer grimaces. “I said I hadn’t seen the video. I never said I didn’t know him.”

“So you’re what—a super fan?” Morgan asks.

“Uh…” Spencer looks down at his hands. “Not exactly.”

Jim looks back and forth between all of them and groans. “For fuck’s sake, Spencer, just tell them!”

All eyes move to him, Spencer’s even wider than his team mates’. He generally looks completely panicked and not at all capable of finding the words to tell the team. Jim notices and rolls his eyes.

“Fine,” he says. “I’ll do it. Spencer here knows all of that stuff about Penny Taylor because he is Penny Taylor. Ta-da! Can we go on now?”

His request is, of course, promptly ignored when the whole team stares at Spencer, completely dumbfounded. Garcia manages to squeak out a slightly hysterical “What?”.

Spencer gulps. “Uh, yeah. That’s one way to say it.”

They continue to stare at each other for a few more seconds before Hotch clears his throat.

“Alright,” he says. “None of us were expecting that, but we need to keep working on the case.”

Spencer nods, as do the others. Hotch looks at them approvingly.

“Good,” he says, turning to Spencer. “Reid, why don’t you fill us in on what you’ve got?”

“Of course,” Spencer says. “So, as I said, I didn’t connect the dots until the unsub took my manager, but I’ve worked with all of the people who were kidnapped. My current theory is that the unsub wants to get me or, well, Penny. I don’t know why. But to do that, they would need to know my real name, or really any information about me. The first few victims didn’t know any of that, so they were killed. Maybe the photographer remembered how I look like, but I’m not sure. Daniel, my manager, knows everything. Who I am, where I live, that I work for the FBI. If he breaks and tells the unsub, there’s a good chance they’ll come after me next.”

“And kill the manager before that,” Prentiss says.

Spencer nods. “Yes. We have to find him before that can happen.”

“I might have an idea,” Garcia pipes up. “It’s probably a crazy one, but hear me out. This guy wants Reid, right? So let’s give him Reid.”

“What?” JJ asks, echoing what everyone is thinking.

“I mean, what if Reid were to announce a surprise show here in Las Vegas? Maybe even a free one. The unsub would be there, right?”

Spencer blinks. “That’s actually a good idea.”

“But it would be hella out of character for you,” Jim says. “You’ve never done a live show. What if the guy notices it’s a trap?”

Hotch considers it. “While that is possible, this might be our only chance. Reid, are you okay with doing this?”

“Yes, of course,” Spencer says. 

Jim shrugs. “Alright, then. I’ll organise something. What are you thinking? Arena or pop up in a park?”

“Pop up would probably be best,” Rossi says. “More chance of the unsub being there. We don’t know if he’s got money to buy a ticket.”

Nodding, Jim takes out his phone. “I’ll make some calls and post something online when I have a location. That good with you?”

“Yes,” Spencer says. “And thank you for this, Jim.”

“That’s kinda my job isn’t it?” Jim grins. “Besides, I really want to have Dan back.”

A few hours later, Spencer is getting ready for the first live performance since college. Jim got everything sorted and his team is already at the location, meddling with the crowd. Spencer already has his outfit on and is just finishing up his eye liner. It feels strange doing that when he knows his team is going to see. But they know about this now. And that’s going to be a whole other conversation as soon as this is over. Spencer can already sense Garcia bombarding him with questions. He also kind of feels like they deserve some answers after not telling them for years. They definitely do.

He draws the last line and looks at himself in the mirror. He’s got only a little more than basic make up. The only really noticeable parts are his eyes, shadowed by almost black eye shadow with a little bit of glitter and framed by winged eye liner. He did put on some lip gloss, but it’s a very light red and more to prevent dry lips than anything else. Once he decides he’s happy with the look, Spencer puts in his earrings and piercings. How the team never noticed he has his ears pierced is beyond him. He has two earrings on both sides, the first one a bigger black circle and the second a small silver ball. He also has a helix piercing on his right ear. In that, he puts a nice silver piece that looks like a snake and seems to be curling around his ear. Once that is done, he takes a few breaths, mentally preparing himself for playing live. Because somehow that makes him more nervous than knowing the unsub might be there. 

After a few seconds, Spencer stands up and pulls on his leather jacket. And over that, he pulls an over-sized hoodie. He’s currently in a hotel across from the park where a small stage is already set up for him. And seeing as he is going to walk there, and through the crowd, he needs to conceal his identity a little. Spencer takes another deep breath, then he pulls the hood over his head and leaves the hotel room. He looks at the ground the whole way to the park, except for when he crosses the street. As he pushes through the frankly massive crowd gathered in the park, he’s glad to see the disguise is working. No one seems to notice the person they are here to see walking right next to them. He throws off the hood when he gets to the stage and almost immediately people start screaming. Walking up to the microphone, Spencer pulls the hoodie off and throws it into the crowd. Might as well give one lucky fan something to remember today by. 

“Hello, Las Vegas!” he shouts into the microphone, getting back even more screams.

He smiles. “Thank you all for showing up on such short notice! This is my band—” He points behind himself. “—and I am Penny Taylor! I’m gonna play some songs for you tonight!”

The crowd goes even wilder and some chants start up. “This first one is quite close to my heart,” Spencer says. “This is ‘You’re not crazy’.”

As the first notes play, the crowd quiets down. This isn’t a fast song. It’s one of the few that are quite slow and emotional. Within a few lines, Spencer loses himself in the music. He wrote this song for his mom and it’s an old one, too. This was his way of dealing with the guilt of sending his mom to Bennington. It took almost ten years for him to find the courage to actually present it to Dan, but his wonderful manager loved it and promptly put it on the next album. Singing it now, to a live audience for the first time, Spencer pours all his heart into it. Jim is recording the whole concert for him, so he can show his mom when the case is over. Spencer knows she’ll love it. She loves all of his music and she cried the first time she heard this song. And immediately after wiping away her tears, she told him that she forgave him minutes after the nurses took her away from her house. He’s been visiting more since that day, the guilt finally going away. 

The next song he plays is a fast one. It’s called ‘Who I Am’ and as soon as the opening notes play, the whole crowd starts screaming and dancing. They also sing along the whole time. Spencer knew this was his most popular song, but seeing it live is so much better than seeing the numbers on his paycheck. Those people in front of him aren’t just a number of streams. These are real people. Real people who love his music enough to learn the lyrics by heart. Spencer almost misses a few words when that particular realisation hits. For some reason, he’s never thought about it that way. He knew he was popular, but he didn’t know he was this popular. Until today, he was convinced he wasn’t someone people went to concerts for. He was sure his songs were only listened to as background music. But now that he sees this crowd, Spencer thinks that maybe he could do this again.

The two songs after that only help strengthen that thought. By the forth song, Spencer has almost forgotten that he’s only doing this to lure the unsub out. But during the fifth song, he’s reminded of that fact rather harshly. He hears some screams that sound terrified instead of excited and a second later, two gunshots ring out in close succession. He’s already dropping to the ground by the time the first bullet is shot and it only manages to graze his shoulder. Pressing his other hand against the wound, Spencer scrambles to hide behind the speakers, even though he guesses that the second gunshot came from his team. But as he can’t see them from his view point and with the panicking crowd, he chooses to be careful. However, as more and more fans flee the scene, Spencer can see someone lying on the ground, surrounded by his team.

His wound isn’t too bad, so he stands up and walks off the stage and towards them. The shooter is already dead by the time Spencer gets there. It’s a young man, maybe a few years younger than himself. 

“Are you okay?” JJ asks, looking at Spencer with concern written all over her body.

Spencer nods absentmindedly. “Yeah,” he says. “Did you get to talk to him before he shot?”

Rossi nods. “We did. Looks like he wasn’t a fan.”

Spencer frowns. “Okay?”

“His ex girlfriend is, though,” Morgan says. “Apparently, she left him after listening to one of your songs and he blamed you for it.”

“This isn’t love,” Spencer whispers.

“What?” Prentiss asks.

Spencer smiles. “The song. It must have been ‘This Isn’t Love’. That one’s about abusive relationships, both physical and emotional. I wrote it after a friend managed to leave her abusive husband.”

“That is very sweet of you,” JJ says.

“Maybe.” Spencer shrugs. “She deserved to have someone tell her she was doing the right thing. And if the song helped another girl leave a bad relationship, I’m okay with getting shot for it.”

He stops for a second. “I’m not okay with him killing innocent people, of course. By the way, do we know his name? Maybe Garcia can find out where he’s holding Daniel.”

“I already sent it to her,” Hotch says. “But you need to get to a medic.”

Spencer starts protesting, but Hotch cuts him off. “No. You got shot, even if it’s only a graze. We will find Daniel while you get checked out at the hospital.”

“Oh, alright.” Spencer sighs.

He knows Hotch is right. That doesn’t mean he has to like it. But he respects his boss, so he makes his way to the ambulance currently parking next to the stage. The paramedics take him to the hospital, but in the end his wound is only cleaned and bandaged and he’s told to stay out of the field for at least two weeks. It might scar a little, but honestly, Spencer doesn’t care about that. What is one more scar when you already have a lot, right? 

By the time he’s finally filled out all the paperwork and is allowed to leave the hospital, Hotch has texted him to let him know they have found Daniel. He’s hurt and shaken up, but he’ll be okay. Part of the team is following Daniel to a hospital (not the one Spencer is at) and the other half is on its way to pick him up. While he waits, Spencer pulls out his phone and opens up Instagram. His feed is as empty as expected when you only follow three different people and he swipes to the right to open the camera. He almost never uses the app, even if he has access to his official account. Usually, he just lets Dan deal with social media. But Dan’s not available and he really needs those fans to know he’s alright. So he records a short video.

“Hi!” he says, waving at the camera awkwardly. “This is Penny Taylor and I want to say sorry for how the concert today ended. I can’t really say a lot because there’s an ongoing investigation, but I thought you would appreciate a quick update. I am okay. Yes, I was shot, but the bullet only grazed my shoulder and the worst that might happen is me getting a small scar and not being able to play the guitar for one or two weeks. Even if the ending was horrible, I want to thank all of you who came today. I’m sure we can have a less dramatic repeat some day.”

With that, he winks at the camera and ends the video. He posts it on his story and makes sure it will be one of those you can watch even months later. (He never bothered to learn all the terminology.) Almost immediately, messages come pouring in, all of them from fans who are incredible happy that he is okay and wishing him a fast recovery. He thanks a few of them personally, but there are simply too many, even with his reading speed. Spencer shrugs and decides he’ll just send a general thank you later. 

A few minutes later, Morgan pulls up in a SUV. Spencer waves and walks towards the car, laughing when JJ and Rossi pull open the door for him. He gets in the car, sitting in between the two of them.

“Heard you’re doing better,” Morgan says, pulling out of the parking lot.

Spencer raises his brows, but then he sees Instagram open on JJ’s phone and rolls his eyes. “Yeah, but you knew it wasn’t bad.”

Rossi raises his hands. “Hey, you are known to severely understate your injuries.”

Spencer wants to disagree, but he can’t, really, not when he knows Rossi’s right. “Fair point,” he says instead. “So, can we go visit Daniel?”

“Already on our way, pretty boy,” Morgan calls from the front.

“Thanks,” Spencer says, smiling.

He looks over his team—his family. And, well, both Rossi and JJ look like they’re holding back questions. So is Morgan, probably, but Spencer can’t really see him that well from where he’s sitting. He sighs.

“Go on,” Spencer says. “Ask your questions.”

And so he spends the next twenty minutes talking about his music and his reasons for keeping it a secret from them. He even sings a few songs he didn’t get to sing at the mini concert and JJ tells him he sounds even better live than on the recording. For some reason, he actually believes her. Probably because she is too sweet to lie about something like that. Spencer is pretty sure he won’t ever admit to it, but he hears Morgan hum along to one of the songs. 

Strangely enough, Spencer is having so much fun, he is almost sad when they arrive at the hospital. But that feeling is quickly replaced with the need to see Daniel. He rushes in, flanked by Morgan, JJ and Rossi. Thankfully, that means they don’t have to stop anywhere and can go straight to Daniel’s hospital room. Hotch and Prentiss are standing in the hallway in front of it, seemingly waiting for the four of them. Hotch smiles at him and nods to the door, so Spencer walks right into the room.

Daniel is lying on the bed. He has bruises all over his face and arms and he has a split lip. But he’s also conscious and smiles as soon as he recognises Spencer.

“Spencer!” he calls. “Good to see you! I heard you were shot by the guy who kidnapped me, are you okay?”

Spencer smiles as well and sits down in the chair next to Daniel’s bed. “I’m good, it’s only a flesh wound. I’ll be fully healed in two weeks and honestly, I think I should be asking you if you’re fine. You’re the one who got kidnapped.”

“I’m fine,” Daniel says, waving him off and promptly wincing. “Okay, maybe not completely. But I will be. He barely had me a full day. And it’s not like I’ve never been beat up before.”

Spencer raises a brow. 

“Oh come on,” Daniel says, rolling his eyes. “I was a gay kid growing up in Alabama, of course I got fucking beat up.”

“And I hate that it happened,” Spencer says, grabbing Daniel’s hand.

Daniel squeezes back. “Look,” he says. “This wasn’t your fault. Yeah, you were the guy’s target, but you are not responsible for his actions.”

“I know,” Spencer says. “I just hate that some people think it’s necessary to do such horrible things.”

“To be fair, you’d be out of a job if they didn’t.”

“You do know I would much rather have that, right?”

Daniel nods. “Yeah, obviously. I was just joking. Besides, you don’t even need the money from your day job. Which means you’re doing it because you want to help people. And that makes you a pretty amazing person.”

Spencer can’t help the smile spreading on his lips. “Oh, shut up.”

“I also saw your Instagram story,” Daniel says, grinning. “So, you’re considering doing concerts?”

“Of course you did,” Spencer mumbles. “Yeah, maybe. The one today was great, except for how it ended. That energy you get from the crowd, it’s amazing. I’d like to feel it again.”

“Hm…” Daniel looks at him intently. “Maybe you could take some time off from the FBI and we could book you a tour. Not right now, obviously. But maybe in a few months. I’m sure we could sell out a US tour. Maybe if that goes well, Europe.”

Spencer laughs. “Hey, not so fast, yeah? This is all pretty new for me. Let me get used to the idea of a professional concert before you consider a tour of Europe.”

“But I can consider it?”

“Maybe some day. Not right now. But you can make a few calls and see when we could make a small US tour happen.”

Daniel already has his phone out before Spencer finishes the sentence. Spencer plucks it out of his hands and throws it into a drawer of the shelf next to the bed.

“After you’re released from the hospital,” he says, putting his hands on Daniel’s shoulders.

Rolling his eyes, Daniel sighs. “Oh, all right.” Then, “Spoilsport.”

Spencer snorts. “I’ll take it,” he says. “As long as you let yourself heal before throwing yourself right back into work.”

“You too, okay?”

“Yeah.”

Spencer looks at the clock in the hospital room. It’s already past eleven at night. Daniel follows his line of sight, then he looks Spencer over from top to bottom.

“You should get some sleep,” he says.

As much as he doesn’t want to leave, Spencer has to agree with him. “You too,” he says. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

His team is still waiting in the hallway when he comes out of the room. Together, they walk back out of the hospital, but not before Morgan throws a hoodie at him. Spencer looks at him in question.

“There are fans outside,” he says.

Ah. Okay then. Spencer shrugs off his leather jacket and hand it over to Morgan. He also takes his hair out of his bun and lets it fall over his face before finally pulling on the hoodie.

When they walk out, he notices the fans but luckily, they don’t take much notice of the six of them and they manage to get to the cars without interruption. It’s only when they’re on the way back to their hotel that the day finally catches up with Spencer and he feels the bone deep exhaustion settling into him. So much has happened today and even his brain has problems with compartmentalising all of it. By the time they do get back to the hotel, Spencer can barely keep his eyes open and Rossi and Morgan have to half carry him to his room. Once he his body hits the soft mattress of his bed, Spencer is asleep, even though he is still fully clothed. Morgan takes one look at him and shrugs. He throws a blanket over Spencer’s sleeping form and drags Rossi out of the room with him.

The next day, Spencer feels more awake, but he’s still exhausted. He spends the day visiting Daniel and later in the afternoon, his mother. She’s happy to see him and just like he predicted, she loves seeing the video of his live performance. That video is, of course, cut off before the song during which the shots fell. Spencer chooses to leave out that detail when he tells his mom about how it felt to sing live. She’s also a big fan of him going on tour and makes him promise to get her a good seat when he comes to Las Vegas.

They fly home in the evening, doing a short debriefing on the jet so they can go home as soon as they land. They discuss the case in detail and Hotch tells Garcia she’ll have Reid for company if they get another case at any point in the next two weeks. She seems to be pretty happy about it if her excited squeal is anything to go by. Before they land, Spencer decided to bring up the tour thing.

“Hey, Hotch?” he asks.

His boss turns towards him, as does everyone else. “Yes? Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, it is,” Spencer says. “It’s just, I was wondering if it’s possible to get a few weeks off at some point during the next few months.”

“It is,” Hotch says, raising a brow. “But I’d like to know why you need it.”

Spencer nods. “Great. Daniel was suggesting going on an actual tour in a few months, just in the US. And, well, I quite enjoyed performing yesterday, so I said yes.”

Hotch smiles while everyone else looks speechless. Spencer laughs at their faces. It is, after all, quite a rarity to see a group of profilers this dumbfounded.

“Don’t worry,” Spencer says, waving his hand and grinning. “I’ll get all of you free tickets to the show closest to Quantico.”

Garcia lets out a happy shout, sounding like the audio version of a key-smash. “Oh my god, YES!”

**Author's Note:**

> I might consider turning this into a series one day... Opinions?
> 
> [find me on tumblr: http://lauradreamie.tumblr.com]


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